Looking for the shape of things to come after the first day of the trial of accused al Qaeda operative Salim Ahmed Hamdan at Guantanamo Bay?

How about the ruling by the military officer overseeing the proceedings that prosecutors could not use statements made by Hamdan while he was a prisoner in Afghanistan?

It could be the kind of game-changer that the administration fears.

Hamdan is a relatively minor player by terrorist standards. He is not considered a "high-value" detainee by the Pentagon. Basically, he drove Osama bin Laden around Afghanistan and perhaps, as the government alleges, transported some weapons from place to place.

But his trial, the first under the military commission framework created by the Bush administration to try the accused terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, offers an opportunity to see how this style of justice plays out. It's the first war crimes trial prosecuted by the United States since World War II.

Navy Capt. Keith Allard ruled Monday the prosecution cannot use a series of interrogations at the Bagram air base and Panshir, Afghanistan, because of the "highly coercive environments and conditions under which they were made."

At Bagram, Hamdan says he was kept in isolation 24 hours a day with his hands and feet restrained, and armed soldiers prompted him to talk by kneeing him in the back. He says his captors at Panshir repeatedly tied him up, put a bag over his head and knocked him the ground.

Allred, however, left open the possibility that Hamdan's statements while jailed at Guantanamo could be used, even though his lawyers argue that that environment was similarly coercive and abusive.

Michael Berrigan, a lawyer for Hamdan, said the ruling was significant, "because these prosecutions are built to make full advantage of statements obtained from detainees."

It's far too early to tell if Allred's ruling will mark a trend not only for Hamdan's trial but for the other 80 or so detainees the Defense Department is hoping to try before the tribunals.

A jury of six officers is hearing Hamdan's case. Even if Hamdan is acquitted, he isn't likely to be released. The Pentagon has classified him as an enemy combatant and maintains it has the right to hold him until hostilities have ended.

Post a comment

(Anonymous comments will not be posted. Comments aren't posted immediately. They're screened for relevance to the topic, obscenity, spam and over-the-top personal attacks. We can't always get them up as soon as we'd like so please be patient. Thanks for visiting The Swamp.)